Conversations by the Fire
by Pickles the Great
Summary: ONESHOT. A wakeup call that doesn't quite pan out. Mentions of Royai.


Really, there are other things I should be doing at four in the morning.

**&&&**

Roy poked at the burning blaze with a thin iron rod, not for any particular reason, it was already strong and hot. But the poker was something to occupy his hands.

Only a few days ago he had landed at the small, obscure station in the north. He ignored the stares and the whispers behind open palms, news of the famous flame alchemist's treason had obviously spread even to the corners of Amestris. He sighed silently. Even what he thought was his escape was trapping him into his past.

A knock on the door imposed upon his thoughts, though not the dainty, quiet knock of the secretary at the base, a loud, crushing knock that threatened the existence of the hinges on his door. "It's open." He said quickly before he had no protection left from the wind. The door opened, colliding loudly with the wall adjacent and let in a huge flurry of snow that was quickly muted. One black eye met two blue and he nearly smiled. "Major General Armstrong, to what do I owe the honor?" He asked gentlemanly. "Thing getting boring up at Fort Briggs?" He added.

Olivier sniffed. "Please. I heard you were polluting the air in my territory with your presence, Mustang, and I want to know what the hell is going on. You should be in Central, with the rest of the trash."

Mustang smirked. "May I remind you that your brother is in Central?"

"I'm well aware." She retorted coolly.

He shook his head. "Rude and beautiful as always, General. Now really, what do you wish to do with that information?" He asked smartly. She scowled. "Bite me, bastard."

"Time and place."

Roy narrowly avoided a flying paperweight.

She folded her arms bitterly. "Consider this a direct order from a superior officer, Mustang, Brigadier General or no. What the hell are you doing spreading your stupid around up here?" Roy thought of retorting with the fact that he abandoned his General status, but decided against it. He noticed the sharp, harsh movements of those ruby lips; they painfully reminded him of another's.

"For your information I left because I was tired of all the gossip surrounding the events at the Fuhrer's mansion." He said haughtily, returning to his poker. "It was damaging my reputation as well of that of my subordinates, whom I believe have suffered enough on my behalf."

"You mean Hawkeye."

Only silence.

"You do realize how cowardly you're being, don't you?"

The fire crackling was the only reply she received. She narrowed her sharp blue eyes at him. "This isn't solving anything," She continued, determined to coax a response out of the dead air. "Being all the way up here when you're place is all the way down there. Do you know how many lives you're affecting with your stubbornness?" Roy grunted, she was one to talk. Olivier took this as some form of response and continued.

"Listen, I couldn't give a damn about you or anything you do." She stated, scowling. "But I like Hawkeye. Good soldier. Good woman. Only one I've ever seen to be able to make Buccaneer cry. And for some insane reason she's attached to you." She put some emphasis on the word insane, "And I don't imagine she's taking very well to you being up here, crying in your little corner like the baby you are." She made note that she was able to fit another insult in there and stood a bit taller. "One thing about us women, we're stubborn and we're damn proud. And after she's spent the last decade babysitting your sorry ass, you just getting up and leaving whenever you damn please is as insulting as it gets. You've made her feel worthless. That's your job." She scoffed at him. She heard a muttering noise coming from Mustang's general direction, it melded in with the fire so well she wasn't sure she had heard it at all. "What was that, Mustang?"

"I said she's not worthless." He said quietly, still not looking away from his poker. "She's... she's not worthless. I'm... I'm the one who's-"

"Damn flippin' right you are." She retorted, not waiting for him to finish his sentence. "You're worthless and you're stupid if you're here and she's there." Her eyes flickered for just a moment, Roy attributed it to his imagination. "Don't think I haven't noticed. I may be a horrid, frigid bitch but I'm still a woman. Proud of it." She added, to make it sound less mushy. "And I'm not blind. So you better be straight with me Mustang, or so help me God I will shove you back from the dark pathetic corner of abyss from whence you were spawned." She snapped menacingly. Roy put down his instrument and evaluated the flames quietly. He took a deep breath.

"I've known her since I was a kid. We grew up together. Up until recently, I had never thought of her as a woman. She was always just Hawkeye. Even when she were kids, she'd hit you if you called her Riza." He smiled softly. "She always made it hard for anyone to get close to her. Got it from her father I suppose." He added thoughtfully. "So I never really tried. I thought we would both end up happy. Over time though, she became... real. She wasn't as distant anymore. She kept on getting closer, whether she meant to or not. And after the accident... she wasn't 'Just Hawkeye' anymore. She was a woman." He focused hard on the floor in front of him. "A wonderful woman."

Olivier blinked. He was being open. Mustang, Roy Mustang. That eyepatch changed him more than she would have thought. She settled back into her penetrating gaze. "So why fight it?" She asked cuttingly. "Why not just give in and give her what she wants?"

Roy shook his head. "You didn't see her. You didn't see what I did to her. She didn't show it, she never does, but she was in so much pain." He choked out the last word softly, Hawkeye in pain was something he didn't agree with well. "If I left... maybe... maybe she could find a way to be happy. She could have the life she deserves. A family, a home," He paused and swallowed a lump in his throat, "A husband."

"No matter what I do I can't give her back everything she's given up for me. I would die for her in a heartbeat but even that won't be enough. The reason she doesn't have all that is because of me." He finished quietly. He picked up his poker and began to pick at the burning logs again.

Olivier frowned. She shook her head causing many blonde hairs to fly around haphazardly.

"You're right, Mustang. The reason she doesn't have all of that is because of you,"

She turned around and forced open the door, her last words barely audible over the rushing of the storm

"But not in the way you think."

**&&&**

LOLOLOANGSTWHUT:'DDD Failing too many classes to be writing fanfiction right now.


End file.
